


Unforgiven

by klutzy_girl



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Missing Scene, Past Abuse, Phone Calls & Telephones, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 15:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2656475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klutzy_girl/pseuds/klutzy_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene for <i>The Things We Bury</i> and speculation for future episodes. Grant struggles facing his biological family for the first time in years as he prepares to infiltrate Hydra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unforgiven

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Agents of SHIELD and never will. No copyright infringement intended.

Grant forced himself not to flinch when Christian held on to him the entire walk to the house. He may have hugged his older brother and still loved him (he didn’t understand why that was the case after everything but he couldn’t think of that now) but Grant couldn’t stand the sight of him. And being this close to Christian made his skin crawl. He was especially dreading since his parents again since the thought of his mother sent chills down his spine. His father had treated them terribly too but her? He still had nightmares about her behavior.

Christian started speaking and snapped Grant back into reality. “What exactly is the plan here?”

“I’ll explain it to you when we see Mother and Dad,” he retorted. Grant shrugged Christian’s arm off his shoulder when they reached the porch and tried to prepare himself for what was going to happen next.

“You okay?”

“And you suddenly care?” Grant rationally knew he couldn’t keep doing this but he didn’t want to be in his brother’s presence. It was taking every ounce of strength he had left to hide his fear from Christian and now he had to work harder around their parents.

“Let’s not get into it right now. My face is killing me.” Christian groaned and rubbed his forehead before grabbing his keys out of his pocket and unlocking the door.

“You deserved it,” he muttered under his breath as they stepped into the house. 

“Mother? Father? I’m home!” Christian called loudly in hopes they’d hear him.

It took about five minutes but they found Virginia Ward in the kitchen, drinking scotch. “What a surprise.” That had been a normal sight during their childhood, one both were used to.

Virginia gasped when she laid eyes on Grant. “Did you take your brother hostage, Grant? I’m not surprised you turned out like this after you tortured my baby all those years. You’ve always been a failure.”

Grant almost started screaming at her but was stopped by Christian laying a hand on his arm. “Mother, I’m fine. I’m assuming Grant has something he wants to talk to us about.” He figured his younger brother had some sort of plan he was about to reveal.

“Go find your father. I’m sure he’s fucking one of the maids somewhere.” Virginia poured some more scotch into her glass and waved them away.

“We’ll go find him together.” Grant wasn’t about to let Christian out of his sight because he didn’t trust him farther than he could throw him.

They made a quick stop to the bathroom so Christian could clean himself up and then started combing the house for Douglas. Sure enough, they found him with one of the maids in the master bedroom. They ushered her out and made Douglas go to the kitchen with them. “What is this about? And why aren’t we calling the police on Grant? He deserves to rot in jail where he belongs.”

Grant’s fingers twitched as he resisted the urge to punch the man. “I have a proposition for all three of you and hopefully you’ll take it. I assume Coulson explained some of the plan to Christian.”

They all turned towards him. “Just that I needed to help take down Hydra and I’d know what the plan was soon enough. Was kidnapping me part of said plan? Because it wasn’t a very good one.”

“No, that was a little off books for personal reasons.” Grant turned towards Virginia and Douglas and glared at them. “Christian admitted to making me push Thomas down the well.” He didn’t think it would change anything but they needed to know.

He was right - Virginia just blinked. “No, he would never do that, despite his utter ineptitude. That was all you, Grant, and you need stop lying to yourself like you always have. You were always a despicable child so it’s no wonder you turned out like this. I wish you were dead.”

Grant ignored the barb although it hurt. “Can all of you shut the fuck up so I can tell you the plan? I don’t want to listen to your shit.” 

“Go ahead,” Christian encouraged.

He didn’t thank him and plowed on instead. “I need to fake your deaths.” And then he stopped and waited for their responses.

“Whatever for?” Douglas asked.

“Fake them? You’re not going to murder us?” Virginia downed another drink and waited for the rest of this plan.

Grant grit his teeth. “No. But to infiltrate Hydra as a way to take them down, I need a way in. That means committing a horrific act to get back in their good graces. And seeing as I am trying to become a better person, it’s not going to happen. So you’ll fake your deaths and come out of hiding after Hydra falls.”

“I am a senator, Grant. My career is very important to me and I can’t just go into hiding or whatever it is you plan to do,” an angry Christian protested.

He held up his hand. “This means taking down a terrorist organization. You’ll get re-elected for that once you come out of hiding because you’ll be a hero.” Playing into Christian’s narcissism would hopefully work, and sure enough it did.

It didn’t take too long for Christian to make up his mind because it did sound like it’d work. And maybe he could run for president someday. “I’m in.”

“Where will we go?” Douglas was intrigued by this plan.

“Coulson found enough money to create some Life Model Decoys – clones, basically – and one of my contacts will get you out of the country.” He bit his lip to control his fear when Virginia held up a hand. Fortunately, she didn’t strike him – she just knocked her glass off the table in a fit of rage.

“How are we going to do this?” Christian was genuinely curious.

Grant smirked. “I taped your confession at the well and I’ll alter it to fit what I need - murder-suicide and I’m burning this fucker to the ground. Again, I guess.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the fact that they were shaking.

Douglas sighed. “If it means taking down a terrorist organization, how can I say no? Let’s do this.”

Virginia glared at her husband and sons. “Might as well since you two have already made up your minds.” 

The relief that swept through Grant’s body nearly brought him to his knees but he kept himself together. “I’ll give you time to prepare yourselves but don’t take long. And don’t go anywhere or call anyone, Christian.” And with that, he hurried to find the nearest bathroom. After locking the door behind him, he slid to the floor and took his phone out of the pocket. He dialed the number he needed and waited for her to pick up. 

“Hello?” came Skye’s voice.

That’s when Grant finally shattered and he burst into sobs. “Hi.”

She straightened up. “Why the fuck are you calling me again? Are you sending another present our way?” she snarked.

“Please don’t hang up,” Grant pleaded. He just needed to hear her voice and then he’d be fine.

“Why should I listen to you? I never should have answered in the first place.” Skye needed to convince him to turn himself in so they could put him back in his cell.

“I’m sorry, Skye. I’m so sorry,” he sobbed.

Even though she was still furious beyond belief with him, Skye still frowned once she realized how off he sounded and that his voice was cracking. “Are you crying?” she asked, suddenly concerned. She shouldn’t be but this was extremely worrying behavior from him.

Garrett always told him crying was a weakness but Grant honestly didn’t give a shit right now. He hated being in the same house as these people again and needed to get the hell away from them as soon as possible. “Christian … he… he admitted the truth, that he forced me to push Thomas down the wall. Someone finally told me it wasn’t my fault, Skye.” He still blamed himself for not being strong enough to fight back against his older brother, though. He should have tried harder.

“What did you do?”

“He’s fine – I didn’t hurt him.” Much – or yet – but he wasn’t about to tell her that because Coulson insisted no one know until after it was done. This was a risk in itself but he was past the point of caring.

Grant lightly slammed his head against the door as he continued crying. Trying to calm himself down wasn’t working at all. “I always tried so hard to protect Thomas and Rose but it never worked. Mother, Father, and Christian saw to it. What am I supposed to do now, Skye?” 

Despite her anger, Skye knew she needed to calm him down. “Grant, can you promise me something?”

“What?”

“Please don’t think about hurting yourself. You’re upset right now and I don’t want you to do something that you’re going to regret.”

“I won’t,” he assured her.

“Promise me. Say the words,” she prompted.

“I promise I won’t hurt myself.” Grant honestly didn’t want to but he understood why she thought he might. 

“Thank you.” She sat there and tried to soothe him through the phone as he continued to cry. 

Once he exhausted himself, Grant prepared to hang up and tried to figure out a way to face them again. He quelled the urge to tell Skye he loved her because he knew she didn’t feel the same way and couldn’t take much more today. “I’ll talk to you again,” he vowed.

“Stop calling me,” Skye shot back after finding her anger again. She hung up on him a few seconds later and went back to trying to find information on her father.

Grant washed his face to hide the evidence of tears and then returned to the kitchen. They all ignored his puffy cheeks and reddened eyes, something he was thankful for because he didn’t want to talk about this with them. “I have the LMDs hidden in the woods but let’s get you out of here first.”

“You know, you’ll always be a failure. I don’t know why I thought any of you could make something of yourselves. Christian is doing a shitty job. My Thomas is the only one who ever made something of himself.” Virginia smiled happily to herself but looked at her sons in confusion when neither one responded.

“Why was Thomas so special, Mother? Why did you love him over me, Grant, and Rose?” Christian honestly wanted the answer to this now that he was done repressing memories.

“Your mother fucked her high school sweetheart a few times- the man she really loved – and conceived Thomas then. I agreed to raise him as my own because I couldn’t afford the scandal. Wouldn’t have been good for my political prospects,” answered Douglas.

Neither one of them was really surprised, both having suspected it at some point. “Do we really need to hash out our issues now? We have more important things to do, such as faking our deaths. Anna’s going to be upset.” 

Grant scoffed. “I don’t even want to be here with any of you but I’m doing it. Buck up, Christian. And you know what? I’m never going to forgive you for what happened. I may be a monster but I’m better off without you and I’ll prove it.”

None of them had any response to that, which suited him just fine. After getting them out of the house (Virginia wanted to take some of her most valuable items but he firmly told her no) and planting the LMDs, he started preparing to burn the house down again.

After it went up in flames, he didn’t wait around and instead led Virginia, Douglas, and Christian to his contact. Once Grant knew they were safe in his hands, he walked away and never said another word to them.

Grant knew he had to make sacrifices to take down Whitehall but he was looking forward to ending this. He was just so tired and wanted this to be over so he could relax. And he couldn’t wait to reunite with his true family, to make amends to them. He had a lot to make up for and knew it wasn’t going to be easy but he just wanted to fix this. Grant knew he wasn’t a good man nor could he ever be but he’d help SHIELD to the best of his ability. He couldn’t wait to see Hydra go down in flames.


End file.
